Research Guides: Undergraduate Guide to Japanese Studies: Search

Ask A Librarian

Make an appointment

Chat, Call, Text

Email: libraries@colorado.edu

Japanese & Korean Studies Librarian

Adam Lisbon

Email Me

Contact:

303-492-8822

Subjects: Asian Languages & Civilizations

How do I keep track of the resources I find?

You can use Zotero. It's free software that works with your browser to make tracking your sources and citing them later much easier. Check out the Libraries guide on using Zotero.

Search for Books and Scholarly Articles about Japan

OneSearch is the Libraries' Search Engine. It can help you discover books, eBooks, and scholarly articles that Google cannot provide access to. Your search results will be better if you can understand how to use keywords to get better results.

First, some general rules:

You will probably have some bad searches, dead ends, etc.
Use keywords relevant to your topic, don't search with sentences
Vary your keywords, try different combinations, and do multiple searches
Keep track of interesting materials you find as you go using Zotero.

Example Search: Anime -- Basic Keyword Search (Part 1 of 4)

How to Search Well with "Anime" as an Example Topic

You can start with a simple search like "Anime," here are the first 4 results filtered by book / eBook:

⭐Note: Search results change over time, your results may vary.

Anime by Colin Odell, Michelle Le Blanc
A simple search like "Anime" will often give you general histories of the topic. These books can be helpful for understanding the framework of a topic.
Anime: A History by Jonathan Clements
This is another book on anime with a broad scope.
Anime's identity : performativity and form beyond Japan by Stevie Suan
Explores the creation of anime in the context of creating it as a commodity to sell abroad.
Anime Impact: The Movies and Shows that Changed the World of Japanese Animation by Chris Stuckmann
Documents major milestones in the history of anime to explain it's modern presentation and how it influences modern culture and fans.

Example Search: Keep Scrolling down for Interesting Titles (part 2 of 4)

Intriguing Materials Can Be Discovered Scrolling Down Through the Results

Interesting and more specific topics, and combinations of academic disciplines start to appear if you scroll deeper. Here are some interesting books you might miss if you don't load more of the results:

⭐Note: Search results change over time, your results may vary.

Interpreting Anime by Christopher Bolton
If you are going to write a research paper on Anime, this book is an excellent guide on how to look at it as an object of research.
Holy Anime! by Patrick Drazen
Tells the history of how Christianity is used as a tool for crafting and inspiring narratives in anime.
Anime Fan Communities by Sandra Annett
Expanding from simply anime, this book Investigates the sociological aspects of anime fandom communities in different countries. It looks at several anime series that developed particularly enthusiastic communities.
Anime Aesthetics by Alistair D. Swale
The aesthetics of anime is a very popular topic. This and many other books explore how exactly anime achieves its look and style, its evolution over the years, and why anime has "that look" that makes it so distinctive.

Example Search: Anime -- Change Your Filters (part 3 of 4)

Change the "Source Type" Filter to Discover New Materials

The examples above focus mainly on Books / Ebooks. Try swapping the "Source Type" filter to "Journal Articles." Scholarly articles from journals offer interesting and nuanced perspectives on narrowly focused topics.

Reconstructing the Grand Narrative: The Pure Land of Madoka Magica
in the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
The author makes the case that the main character's arc of self sacrifice is akin to religious tenants of Pure Land Buddhism, framed in the anime's reception by otaku culture and fandom.
Kawaii Kokutai: The Militarized Shōjo Body in Contemporary Anime
in the journal Mechademia
The author puts forward that cute feminine characters accompanied by mechs or other weapons represent a nationalistic perspective on Japan's identity intertwined with military capacity.
The Emotional Realism of Anime: Rewriting Characters and Affective Reception in Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time
in the journal Mechademia
An outline is given how characters move across different media to manifest multiple times, and that this process also includes a fandom's perception of that character.
Anime Fan-Oriented Works: Encountering Fan Narratives in Anime Crimes Division and Its North American Contexts
in the journal Mechademia
"Mechademia" comes up a lot for a search on "Anime" because it's the most highly regarded scholarly journal on the topic.

🔎 Example Search: Anime, part 4 of 4 -- Focus Your Topic

Discover more Specialized Resources as You Build Foundational Knowledge on Your Topic

⭐ Notice that once you start to do more specific searches, you will start seeing more journal articles.

"Anime" is too broad a topic for doing a research paper. Think about what you would like to focus on, what are you passionate about in addition to anime?

Are you an environmental studies major? Research how the environment in portrayed.
History majors can investigate how major events depicted.
Political science major, how is anime used to satirize and criticize the political establishment (of Japan)?

A simple search like "anime gender" will provide new and interesting results. Even without reading the materials, the search results will provide you with lots of concepts, ideas, and vocabulary to better explore your topic. Below are some examples:

⭐Note: Search results change over time, your results may vary.

"anime gender" keyword search:
Looking at titles and descriptions in the search results, you can tease out new concepts about anime and gender: shojo, gender identity, magical girl, gender bending, otome, visual kei, lolita fashion, etc.
"anime environment" keyword search:
One of the first results is about business environments, specifically how anime is provided to streaming services. Another result explores how Miyazaki films portray human-environment relations. This is a great example of how a word can have more than one meaning.
"anime politics" keyword search:
You'll see that these results don't offer much insight into politics, though there is some emphasis on Japan's external relations. In this case, you may need to look at each book/article. For books, check the table of contents and index. Additionally, this topic may not be well explored. This raises the questions "Why is Anime devoid of political satire?" You can research political satire in Japan in general in order to come up with an answer to this question.